Paper Rings || R. Lupin¹

Chapter 1

James Potter was a boy of average height and build, with messy black hair that never stayed in place, and he wore glasses over his hazel eyes, as he had terrible eyesight. As he was walking to platform 9 3/4 with his mum and dad all James could think about was what would happen if he didn't make Gryffindor. James knew that his parents would be proud of him no matter what, but if he got into Slytherin, would he still be proud of him then, somehow, he didn't think so. They were standing in front of the divider between platforms nine and ten, and his dad was explaining to him how to get onto platform 9 3/4, but he was paying very little attention to what his dad had been saying because a family a little to the left of them caught his eye.

The mother was talking rather loudly to her children, two of whom seemed to be James' age, they were quite obviously twins. There was another little boy there who seemed to be about a year or two younger than the twins. The whole family had black hair and gray-looking eyes, both of the twins were quite short, but the girl was a good couple inches shorter than her brother, almost shorter still than her younger brother.

The mother and father were looking at their children quite sternly. As the twins turned around to run through the barrier, James quickly looked away, as to not be caught staring, but as the sibling ran through the barrier, James still heard the mother yell after them. "Make sure you get into Slytherin!"

James was slightly shocked by this, he was sure he must have heard wrong. There was no way that that mother had meant that her children could only get into Slytherin, no that couldn't be right, but seeing as his father was trying to usher him through the barrier, he didn't get a chance to think too hard on this thought.

A little more than a second later he was through the barrier and staring straight at a scarlet steam engine. He hugged his parents goodbye and walked off with his trolley in search of a compartment. Eventually, he found a compartment that was empty except for a girl and boy that he couldn't see very well from where he was standing.

He loaded his trunk into the compartment and climbed onto the train. When he sat down and looked at the girl and boy again, he realized that they were the same set of twins that he had seen before he had gone through the barrier.

They all sat in silence as the train started to pull out of the station, after about fifteen minutes, James finally spoke. "Hi I'm James Potter, what are your names?"

"Hi James, I'm Sirius, Sirius Black," said the boy, "and this is my sister Nova."

"Nice to meet you," said the girl, Nova. They had been talking for about ten minutes when the door to their compartment slid open, and two boys walked in.

"Um—hi," said the taller of the two boys. "Everywhere else is full, do you mind if we join you?"

"No, not at all," said Sirius. "My name's Sirius Black, this is my sister Nova, and this is James Potter. What are your names?"

"I'm Remus Lupin," said the more confident of the two. He was quite tall for an eleven-year-old and had shaggy brown hair and kind, green eyes.

"I'm Peter Pettigrew." Squeaked out the other boy. He was a shy-looking boy who was almost as short as Sirius, though still considerably taller than Nova. He had mousy light brown hair and blue eyes that held a look of constant nervousness.

Peter sat down next to James, and Remus sat next to Nova and they started talking about school.

"So," said James, "what house are you guys hoping for? I'm hoping for Gryffindor, but I'll be happy with anything, except maybe Slytherin."

"Well," said Remus, "I'm personally hoping for either Gryffindor or Ravenclaw."

"I'm ok with anything," Peter muttered. They all turned to Sirius and Nova who had turned rather quiet and looked as though this was a conversation that they were dreading.

"Well," started Nova. "Um—Well our parents want us to get Slytherin, so we've never really given much thought to any of the other houses because they were never really an option."

"In our family, it's kinda Slytherin or nothing." Added Sirius.

"Well I don't think that you get to choose, you know." Said James kindly. "But no matter what houses were in, I think that we should all be friends."

They all agreed with James, saying that they would be friends no matter what, none of them knowing that for the next 7 years that oath would be tested over and over again, only to come out as strong as ever.

"Do you guys want to see something cool?" Asked James. When the other four nodded, James, bent down over his trunk and pulled out a silvery cloak, and put it on. His four companions gasped, James was completely invisible.

"Merlin's Beard!" Exclaimed Sirius, "that's an Invisibility Cloak. Where'd you get that?"

"It was my dad's," explained James. As they were talking, the trolley witch had come up to their compartment, as the door slid open, James hurriedly stashed the Invisibility Cloak back into his trunk.

"Anything off the trolley, dears?" Asked the kind, old witch. Everyone got something and because Peter didn't have any money to spare, James bought him a licorice wand and two chocolate frogs, which Peter thanked him profusely for. As they sat with their sweets they split into separate conversations.

Sirius and James sat talking about pranks and jokes and Quidditch, while Nova, Remus, and Peter talked about their favorite books and what subjects they were the most excited to pursue.

Quite sometime later the door to their compartment slid open yet again to reveal a girl with fiery red hair and bright green eyes, and a boy with dull black eyes, a long nose, and greasy black hair.

"Hello," said the girl, "we were wondering, have you seen a kitten wandering around, a girl up front has lost one."

"No, we haven't," said Remus, "sorry."

"It's quite alright," Said the girl. "I'm Lily Evans by the way, and this is Severus Snape.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Remus Lupin, and this is Peter Pettigrew, James Potter, and Sirius and Nova Black," said Remus, pointing to each of them in turn.

They all waved hello to Lily and Severus, but it didn't stop there, no. James and Sirius jumped in and started talking to each other none too quietly about Severus' greasy hair.

Nova nudged her brother when she realized that Lily was giving him and James a death glare. "There is no need to be rude," said Lily, and she grabbed Severus' hand, and they left, slamming the compartment door behind them as they went, Nova rushed after them.

"I'm sorry about my brother," she said. "He can be a git sometimes, but I promise that he isn't that bad."

"It's fine," said Lily. "Some people just need to learn manners," and she stalked off down the train.

Nova walked back to the compartment and sat down glaring at her brother. She grabbed a book out of her trunk and started reading, determined to ignore Sirius for the rest of the train ride.

"Come on, Nov," said Sirius. "You know that you can't stay mad at me forever."

She didn't even blink, so Sirius, looking at the other boys with a mischievous glint in his eye, turned to his sister, reached over, and started tickling her. Nova tried to keep a straight face but she couldn't, she dropped her book and started laughing.

"Siri, come on, stop, stop." She said laughing, but Sirius didn't stop until Nova started to yell.

"Sirius Orion Black! You stop this minute!" So Sirius stopped, looking at her with a face full of terror for she never used his full name. The other three boys saw the look on his face and started laughing historically, and pretty soon Sirius and Nova were laughing right along with them.

They sat laughing together until they felt the train start to slow down, and realized that it was dark outside of the window, they had finally reached Hogwarts.

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